Mathematical and numerical modelling of limestone dissolution Available to Purchase

The dissolution of calcium carbonate in limestone results in karst morphologies and karst caves over a long length of time. Although the geochemical process is simple, the dissolution can cause serious issues such as sinkholes depending on the geological and/or environmental conditions. Thus, a simulation predicting its dissolution processes is valuable for understanding the geological risk of karst environments. This paper presents a simple model of the dissolution of calcium carbonate in limestone to simulate the geochemical alteration of the karst terrain. The model is formulated by using an advection, chemical reaction and diffusion system and is discretised through the finite-difference method. The numerical simulations provide spatio-temporal dissolution patterns of calcium carbonate. In this work, some numerical simulations for intact rock, rock with internal cracks and rock with a cavity were conducted based on the proposed model. The simulation results indicate that the expansion of cavities depends on the direction of groundwater flow and the distribution of internal cracks and cavities.